Something smells hot

[Debugjaws]

91 WB. Sunday evening of Thanksgiving weekend, watching a Christmas movie, eating pie and ice cream, and all of a sudden I smell something hot, like electrical hot. the TV, DVD, Webasto, it’s 2 pumps, convectors, and a few LED lights are the only electrical stuff running. There seems to be a phantom 10 amp draw on leg 2 that comes and goes. Maybe the inverter battery charger, don’t know. I have been experiencing some weirdness where we’ve tripped the park breaker a couple of times without pulling any large loads from stuff we’ve turned on.

I pinpointed the smell coming from the hydronic heat radiator chase along the passenger side wall 1-3 feet behind the passenger seat. I can’t locate any hot wires. There are (2) 120 plug outlets on that wall, both meter out fine, and they’re not hot. Any other wiring is in loom, I’m assuming all 12v, but again, nothing seems to be hot. I checked the outlets in the basement and they meter out fine.

Is there anything else along this wall down low that I should be concerned about? I’m still suspicious of the inverter / battery charging circuit. I hear one of the relays in the inverter area clicking from time to time. I’m never quick enough to get to the amp meter to see if there’s been a change.

Any thoughts / ideas would be appreciated.

[Dieselbird01]

Originally Posted by Debugjaws

91 WB. Sunday evening of Thanksgiving weekend, watching a Christmas movie, eating pie and ice cream, and all of a sudden I smell something hot, like electrical hot. the TV, DVD, Webasto, it’s 2 pumps, convectors, and a few LED lights are the only electrical stuff running. There seems to be a phantom 10 amp draw on leg 2 that comes and goes. Maybe the inverter battery charger, don’t know. I have been experiencing some weirdness where we’ve tripped the park breaker a couple of times without pulling any large loads from stuff we’ve turned on.

I pinpointed the smell coming from the hydronic heat radiator chase along the passenger side wall 1-3 feet behind the passenger seat. I can’t locate any hot wires. There are (2) 120 plug outlets on that wall, both meter out fine, and they’re not hot. Any other wiring is in loom, I’m assuming all 12v, but again, nothing seems to be hot. I checked the outlets in the basement and they meter out fine.

Is there anything else along this wall down low that I should be concerned about? I’m still suspicious of the inverter / battery charging circuit. I hear one of the relays in the inverter area clicking from time to time. I’m never quick enough to get to the amp meter to see if there’s been a change.

Any thoughts / ideas would be appreciated.

My 91 WB has a metal box inside the heat convector chase on the passenger side with a PRD11AG0-120V inverter relay in it. Note: The relay coil and the relay contacts are fed by 120 Volts ac.

[Debugjaws]

Originally Posted by Dieselbird01

My 91 WB has a metal box inside the heat convector chase on the passenger side with a PRD11AG0-120V inverter relay in it. Note: The relay coil and the relay contacts are fed by 120 Volts ac.

John - about where in the chase is this relay located? It definitely sounds like that type of heavier relay toggling. Close to the fridge?

[Debugjaws]

Originally Posted by Dieselbird01

My 91 WB has a metal box inside the heat convector chase on the passenger side with a PRD11AG0-120V inverter relay in it. Note: The relay coil and the relay contacts are fed by 120 Volts ac.

Found the Relay,. It indeed is in the right location to cause the smell. But it shows no signs of burn.

A couple of other things in mix are that we use a Hughes autoformer. Not necessary for voltage boosting at this park, but it does serve as a surge protector. We were also using a 30 amp splitter that allows you to use two pedestals allowing for 30A on each leg.

When the burn smell came on, and after tripping the park breaker twice in the previous 2 days, I removed the splitter and discovered this fried end on the connecting cord. Not sure what to make of all of this.

[tqwrench]

Possible spread terminal, decreasing surface area to pull current, localized hot spotting and arcing leading to heat and more resistance, a vicious cycle. Replace both affected components with UL-rated items. Look/listen for something pulling more current than it should. Start with motors. When you slow an electrical motor down (think bad bearing) it will pull more current trying to compensate. Electric motors generate max torque when stalled, more torque = more current draw.

[oldmansax]

Shot in the dark here..... If you are using the two, separate 30A pedestals for power, meter them to make sure the hot and neutrals are wired correctly on both. They SHOULD be wired according to code but I have see parks with one pedestal wired one correctly and the next one reversed.



TOM